Not only does planting the milkweeds allow for more butterflies to come spawn at the park, but it also gives the children a sense of ownership, Stevenson said.

A recent installment to the park is eight small tile circles, each depicting a life cycle of a butterfly, surrounding a large tile circle with the name of the park and paintings of butterflies glazed on top. The first large tile was installed in 1995.

Costa Mesa artist Lubica Selecka was selected by Gilson to create the tiles for the park.

"It was very interesting since the beginning and we came a long way," Selecka said, adding that though tweaks were made to the sketches, Gilson's vision was met.

Gilson added that she's done thinking of new ideas to improve the park, but Stevenson butted in and told Gilson, "It's never finished."

"Let's finish this project first then we'll deal with everything else," Gilson said.